Legacy of the Trickster
by scarletdestiny
Summary: Spoiler Warning: DO NOT READ unless you have seen IW. Summary located inside as I do not wish to spoil any part of the movie for those who have yet to watch it.


**Greetings, All! Yes, I am still working on "Whispers in the Dark." However, with IW coming out recently, I felt compelled to write a Oneshot. I have now begun a sort-of sequel to this fic entitled "Whether 'Tis Nobler." Leaving this fic as a Oneshot for angsty, impactful purposes.**

 **All errors are my own. Note to self: Don't write and publish fanfiction at 2:00 o'clock in the morning.**

 **I absolutely own none of Marvel.**

 **Summary** : A retelling of the first few moments of IW from Loki's POV.  
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None of this was going according to plan.

Their ship wasn't supposed to be overtaken by Thanos and the Black Order. The majority of Asgard's remaining population wasn't meant to be lying in pools of their own blood on the cold, grimey floor of the spaceship.

He had thought there would be more time to prepare, more time to get Asgard's once-proud people to safety before he slipped away to hide the Tesseract somewhere it would never be located.

But now Thanos was standing before him in all of his terrible glory, the power stone casting a sharp purple glow to light the fateful scene in mocking hues of a color once intended to imply royalty. The Mad Titan Thanos was anything but royalty.

He was a tyrant, a ruler who put his own selfish desires and goals in front of the wellbeing of his own people. Except that all of his own people had been killed, wiped out eons ago due to overpopulation and negligence of governmental duties.

The Tesseract had shown Loki a great number of things, reacting instinctively to his unquenchable thirst for knowledge by providing him with an overabundance of details both large and small. Histories of many peoples throughout the galaxy that had long been deceased; loopholes in space that he had not yet noticed, even in all of his time spent searching through the branches of Yggdrasil for secret paths that were known only to him and a few select others.

Great and terrible things had been cast before his eyes, burned into his mind before he could fathom what was happening.

Knowledge kept one from remaining ignorant; knowledge kept him alive.

But what knowledge could serve him here?

Loki knew that trading the space stone for Thor was a blunder. His proud, infuriatingly-unselfish brother would never deem it fit to sacrifice the good of the universe merely to save his own life.

Loki shifted his gaze to the ever-stubborn Thor, barely holding back a wince at the way Thanos was squeezing his brother's head.

To hand over the stone or to keep up this charade of courage?

Thanos repeated his question, demanding that the space stone be produced from wherever Loki had stowed it. Thor, still somehow retaining a measure of hope, ardently denied that the terribly-powerful stone was anywhere aboard the ship. All the while, Thor's one good eye seemed to bore into Loki, not wanting to believe that he had once again been betrayed.

The stone or his brother?

The choice ought to have been painfully obvious from the start. A true ruler would not place anyone or anything over the lives of their people, no matter how few in number those people were.

And yet his answer had not changed since his boyhood, no matter how hard he attempted to protest otherwise.

Drawing as much dignity as he could, Loki plucked the Tesseract out from the crack in the fabric of the universe through which he had slipped it, and held it out to Thanos warily.

He only had one shot at this, one chance to make all of this right.

However, Thanos treated the Hulk as nothing more than an annoying gnat, a slight blip in his plan, to be sure, but not too troublesome of a problem. Then Heimdall had opened the Bifrost one last time and flew the Hulk back to the temporary safety of Banner's own planet. And with a thrust of a blade, two of their warriors were dismissed from the battlefield.

Only Thor and Loki remained. Neither of whom were in any position to take down Thanos and his four minions.

Nevertheless, Thor attacked, as Thor was wont to do.

No one noticed Loki's simple vanishing act. For if there was one thing he was good at more than any other, it was misdirection. Whether with words or with actions, the trick was to know where others were likely to place their focus and then to call as much subtle attention to what was anticipated so as to not give away the true plan.

By the time Loki managed to sneak back into the room undetected hardly a moment later, Thor had already managed to get himself trapped in a suit of armor that looked suspiciously like something the Man of Iron - as Thor referred to him - would design.

The space stone had been freed from its casing and was displayed prominently and proudly on Thanos' gauntlet.

Loki knew he really ought to let the matter drop. The majority of their people were slain, Thor was incapacitated, and no one would be coming to their rescue. To allow Thanos and his goons to leave would be the sensible course of action.

Except that the Mad Titan held two Infinity Stones. To simply allow him to walk free would be akin to releasing him on an unsuspecting universe. If Thanos left the ship alive, then Loki would have assisted in dooming trillions of sentient creatures to their inevitable demises.

Much more boldly than he felt, he stood in front of the monster he had once feared. His words were slow, deliberate. To the casual observer, they would have been taken at their face value: a true offer of loyalty to the most powerful being on the ship, if not currently the most powerful in the universe.

He sincerely hoped Thor had enough brain cells left in that thick skull of his to realize differently.

As inconspicuously as he could, Loki stole a few quick glances over to his brother, trying desperately to convey his plan.

From the corner of his eye, he noticed Thor's good eye widen slightly in horror, his lips parting to make a comment, to beg Loki not to act. But the knife was already in hand. The plan had already been set. To back out now would be to admit to cowardice.

To release Thanos and his ilk on the universe would be to once again betray everything that he ought to have been protecting all along.

Thor would understand eventually, Loki promised himself. After all, this was the sort of plan his brother would come up with. A life given to save others.

One way or another, there was one thing Loki was positive of in that moment. If he had to trade a life for a life, then he would go down fighting.

Loki's blade cut swiftly through the air towards its intended target, but never struck. Mere centimeters away from dealing a stinging blow, the knife and indeed Loki's entire body, had been frozen.

The Mad Titan had anticipated the attack.

Thanos' retaliation was quick and excruciatingly painful. The titan's hand was a metal band, tightening ever more around his suddenly much too thin and fragile neck. Physically, there was no escape from this situation. Mental prowess served him no purpose when the airflow to his brain had been almost completely cut off.

Distantly, as if though miles away and connected only by whispers of thought, Loki could hear Thor struggling against his restraints, putting all of his immense strength into attempting to break free.

Thor, he wanted to chastise, when have I ever acted without a plan?

Instead, he gasped vainly for air. Struggling to get even the smallest sliver of oxygen into his quickly-collapsing lungs. Wells of magical power threatened to burst forth from him in blazing displays of intense power and brilliant flashes of color, but he used the remained threads of his strength to block the dam.

This was not the time. This was not the place.

A small smirk spread across Thanos' face, one of certain victory.

Except for one important fact that Loki couldn't help but point out even as the final strands of consciousness vanished from his body.

"You. Will. Never. Be. A. God."


End file.
